Articles

Investments in U.S. wind energy are continuing and primed to grow once questions about government financial support for the burgeoning industry are resolved, according to a key market player.

Africa as has long been a target for wealthy philanthropists who donate money in a fight against the continent’s poverty, disease epidemics and food shortages. Now, taking a cue from the nonprofit world, profit-hungry investors are eyeing Africa in a new way, putting a charitable spin on their pursuit of double-digit returns.

Monsanto Co said on Wednesday it would appeal a U.S. court order that the company's biotech sugarbeet seedlings be uprooted. The "secklings" planted by U.S. farmers are aimed at developing seed for a future crop, are harmless, and removing them will be costly for producers, said Monsanto, the world's biggest seed company.

U.S. factory farms are getting even bigger, concentrating more animals into fewer production operations in a system that can be harmful to animals, the environment and human health, a new study says.

A planned U.S. laboratory aimed at studying dangerous foreign animal diseases and preventing their spread to American cattle, hogs and other livestock carries the risk of spreading highly contagious pathogens, the National Research Council said on Monday.

U.S. investment adviser Optima Fund Management is picking up new U.S. farm properties at a brisk pace as it prepares to take public its farmland real estate investment trust, a top Optima executive said Tuesday.

Investors eyeing agriculture in Africa, Latin America and other global markets are increasingly merging their pursuit of profits with a philanthropic zeal that promoters say will pay benefits over the long term. So-called “impact investing” is catching on with a range of private equity groups, financial services firms, venture capital funds and other moneyed players.

Fears that rising farmland values may be building toward a bubble which could burst and deal a blow to the still-shaky U.S. economy are overblown, according to a leading U.S. farmland investor.

Monsanto Co. MON.N said on Monday its newly harvested U.S. corn and soybean products were showing good yield performance, and the company reaffirmed guidance on earnings per share, cash flow, and growth.

Monsanto Co could start field testing genetically modified wheat within one to two years, but remains cautious about future commercialization, according to one of the company’s top wheat technology executives. Six years after shelving an earlier biotech wheat product in the face of stiff market resistance, Monsanto still sees a need for circumspection, but believes building acceptance and a need for increased food production makes the wheat seed market potentially lucrative over the long term.